


Thank God for Power Outages

by laceandsteelgirl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Jegulus, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 01:51:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9213827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laceandsteelgirl/pseuds/laceandsteelgirl
Summary: Regulus Black is having an awful day. His university accommodation has no power, again, and so he does the only thing he can think of. He goes to the café where his brother Sirius works, hoping to talk to him. Instead, he happens to meet a new employee named James Potter.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So last night I accidentally discovered Jegulus on this tumblr blog I was reading (remussiriusetc.tumblr.com/) and I was like "Why haven't I heard of this before, it's awesome!" I went looking for fanfic, and most of it is written in Romanian or something, and unfortunately I can't read Romanian. So I wrote some fanfic instead. It's a pretty short one, but I'm planning to write a long Jegulus fic at some point. 
> 
> This one's dedicated to Keely, who's awesome! Keep a lookout for those sneaky Mongolians, ok? 
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

Regulus Black hated the cold. He hated the cold, and he was scared of the dark. Why, then, he wondered, did he end up choosing to go to university, where apparently working heating and lights were a things unheard of? He sat shivering in the dark, trying to read an extract for his Physics lecture the next day, tossing up on whether he should just give in, call Sirius and go somewhere else for the night.

He sighed, then looked at the clock. 8:32, it read. Great, he'd been here for at least an hour and forty-five minutes, attempting to get, warm, to see, to just do the fucking work for his course. Fucking winter. Fucking power-outages. Fuck everything. He shut the textbook with a snap, tossing it aside to fall who knew where, and grabbed his coat and keys. Sirius worked in a café not far from where he lived, so that's where he headed. It was even colder outside, if that was possible. It was one of the coldest winters England had had in a long time, and the wind tore around him, scratching him, biting him. Fucking winter, he thought again. 

When the wind howled back over to play again, he shoved his hands deeper into his coat pockets and turned the collar up, which, he reflected, along with the black hair and the aristocratic features, made him look rather like Sherlock. If only Martin Freeman was here to make life more interesting, he thought. Most of his time was spent studying, because although Sirius had been disinherited and he was now technically the heir, he couldn't afford to lose his place in university, not even if he did have the money to pay the university and have them forget his bad marks entirely. No, he needed to do something for himself, he felt, rather than just rely on his wealth and title to get him through everything. And so he studied and he revised, he took notes and he taught himself to do complicated problems in an easier way. The times he didn't study, like when there were power-outages (which happened quite frequently), he often walked to the café where Sirius worked.

Sirius was his older brother, and technically should have been the one in Regulus' position. He was the eldest son, the heir, and should therefore have inherited the title of Lord Black and all the money to go with it. However, his parents hadn't exactly been the kindest parents - in fact they'd been very abusive, if Regulus was perfectly honest with himself. So his brother had rebelled and run away from home, and Regulus had been too scared to change, too scared to leave. Then his father was arrested for fraud, and his mother had a heart attack when they gave her the news. So now Regulus was officially Lord Regulus Black, and owned far too much money, most of which he kept trying to give to Sirius. Sirius had helped him find a job, get a university placement and an apartment, and had always been kind to him, even when they were growing up. He felt as though he owed Sirius so much for that, although Sirius kept insisting he didn't.

The lights in the café glowed, fairy lights, Christmas lights, lamps and candles. Regulus loved that Sirius had insisted the café get so many sources of light just because he knew Regulus hated the dark. He pushed the door open, jangling the bell, and walked into the warm. Oh, it was so nice to be in a place with working power, he thought. The power in his building just kept cutting all the time. The air smelled like cupcakes and coffee, and suddenly he was very hungry. He dug in his pocket for some money and walked up to the counter. The man standing there was tall with messy black hair and glasses which didn’t appear to be sitting straight. He was also entirely focussed on playing Candy Crush on his phone.

“Ahem”, Regulus cleared his throat quietly. The man looked up.

“Sirius?” he said, then realised his mistake. “Oh, sorry, you look like someone who works here as well.”

Regulus smiled. “I’m not surprised, given he’s my brother. Is there any chance I could speak to him?” The man, whose name was James, Regulus belately realised after reading his name tag, shook his head.

“Sorry, he just ducked out to find someone called Regulus. Maybe you can take a seat and have some coffee while you wait.” Regulus had to hold back a laugh. He and Sirius did this all the time – one would go looking for the other at the exact same time as the other went looking for them.

“Oh, um, I’m Regulus, actually. Have you just started? Because I don’t think I’ve seen you before.” James’ eyes widened and he looked rather startled. He turned his phone off and tossed it onto the counter, making a loud clunk. Regulus winced. The phone looked expensive.

“Sorry, I didn’t realise. He just mentioned a brother, I didn’t know your name. And yeah, I’ve only just started here. Sorry. Can I get you a coffee?”

“No thanks, but can I please have a croissant?” Regulus smiled warmly. James’ flustered nervousness was just the littlest bit adorable, and James’ good looks only made Regulus like him all the more. James grabbed the tongs and pulled out a croissant as Regulus wandered over to a table to call Sirius.

“Hey, Sirius.”

“Regulus! Where are you, there’s no one here and it’s dark and I’m freezing my balls off.”

“Don’t do that, Remus won’t like it at all.”

“Shut up.” Regulus could hear the laugh in his voice.

“I’m at the café now. Some guy called James told me you’d gone to find me.”

“Oh, ok, I’ll come back now. So you’ve met James? What do you think?”

“Well, he’s got good Candy Crush strategy, gotta say, but I don’t know about anything else really.”

“Tell him to do some actual work, the lazy sod. Nah, but he’s a good guy. Hot, too. And bi. Just your type, Reg.” Regulus’ cheeks turned pink. It was true. James was exactly his type – handsome, dark-haired, funny and (as far as he could tell from the shirt clinging to his arms) quite fit as well.

“Oh my god, do not call me that. How many times do I have to tell you? And do you have to try to set me up with every single bloke in the vicinity?” he hissed into the phone, trying not to talk loudly and have James overhear him.

“Yep. Baby brother gotta get a boyfriend sometime.”

“Fuck you. We’re only a year apart, you can’t call me baby brother anymore.”

“Course I can, baby brother.”

“You fucker”, Regulus swore, and then hung up when James brought the croissant and a cup over. 

“I know you didn’t want coffee, so I made you tea instead. No Englishman could turn tea down, could they?”

“Oh, thanks”, Regulus said, surprised that James would do that for him. He took a sip and found it was made exactly how he liked it, totally black with far too much sugar in it. 

“How’d you know?” he blurted.

“Know what? The tea? Sirius. Complains all the time that you’re not a proper British person, drinking your tea with no milk and all sugar”, James snorted. “Idiot. Nah, but he’s really nice to me.”

“Speak of the devil”, Regulus muttered as Sirius came barrelling in through the door, trailing snow and clingy tendrils of cold. 

“Baby brother!” he greeted Regulus, pulling him into a hug and nearly spilling the tea on Regulus’ lap.

“Watch it, you may not want your balls frozen off by the lack of heating in my building, but I don’t exactly need mine burnt off”, he complained as James laughed from behind the counter. “And what did I literally just hang up on you for calling me? I’m not your fucking baby brother.”

“Aww Regulus, can’t I have some fun?”

“Nope. Not without Remus there to make sure you don’t kill yourself by accident.” Sirius chuckled and went to hang his coat up, swapping it for an apron.

The afternoon progressed relatively quietly, with only a few customers due to the dreadful weather. Regulus ate his croissant and sipped his tea happily, reading on his phone at the same time, barely even noticing as the sky got darker and darker. When closing time came, Sirius walked over again. 

“Hey, baby brother”, he began, ignoring Regulus’ gritted teeth and annoyed expression. “Your building’s shit. You’re going to get pneumonia if you stay there. Come stay at mine instead. Please, Regulus? I don’t want you getting sick.”

“Oh alright, but only if we go and get my uni stuff. I can’t get behind on my work.”

“What work? Physicists know literally nothing, they just make up theories about it all.”

“…Yeah, that’s pretty true, actually. But we’re getting it anyway.” James had stopped packing the chairs away, listening to them talk with a smile on his face at the brothers’ obvious love for each other. Sirius went to help James, taking over the chair stacking as Regulus approached the back room to fetch Sirius’ coat and keys. Once he’d got them, he turned around and nearly walked straight into James, who held out a piece of paper to him.

“That’s…that’s my number. I’d really love to talk to you again some time, if that’s alright with you”, he mumbled. Regulus looked at him, surprised. James was his type, but he’d never expected any sign of interest from him. Oh well, he thought. May as well, I mean you already like him and you’ve only known him for about two and a half hours. He reached out and took the paper. 

“Sure, I’d like that”, he said quietly. 

“Great!” James replied brightly, a smile lighting up his face like the lights of the shop. It was a good look on him, Regulus thought. He wanted to see that smile more often, to make it happen. He walked past James, back into the main area of the café, turning back slightly to smile at him. James waved, and as Sirius walked out into the cold night, Regulus followed him, clutching the paper tightly, full of happiness and hope.

**Author's Note:**

> So there's some Jegulus for you. I hope you found it as adorable as I did. I ship Jily like no one else, but as soon as I discovered Jegulus I knew I had to ship it too. 
> 
> I'm not writing a long one yet, but I have started another AU Jegulus which I might post soon.
> 
> Anyway, comment and tell me what you thought!


End file.
